Flight To Freedom
by Jayfeattheris Awesome
Summary: Cayde-6 is FREEEEEEEEEE! Free as the wind! Free as free can be! FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
1. Freeeeeedooooom!

It was a normal day at the Tower, that day. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping...and the Hunter Vanguard was taking a running leap off the main courtyard. Why, you may ask?

Well, if you were Cayde-6, you would know perfectly well why. Your life sucks. You're stuck in this Tower while your friend Tevis brags over the comms about whatever baron he'd just killed.

You really, _really_ hate your job, and you wonder exactly how drunk you were when you took the Dare, until you remember that you're an exo; you can't get drunk.

And then the Queen's Emissary comes along with the exact. Same. Problem. The job sucks, you life has hit a low point, you're going through an early mid-life crisis, no-one will let you go out and kill stuff, and your own home is sucking away at your sanity. Naturally, you two bond over this, and then one of you comes up with a crazy idea born form boredom and desperation; go rouge for a day.

Now, usually, Petra Venj would never have agreed to this. But, under the influence of the one-and-only-ever-amazing-Cayde-6, she'd realized that this was the only way to save her sanity. And so the plan begins.

"You and me, against the world...We attack at dawn." he'd said, causing her to roll her eyes, though she was filled with anticipation non-the-less.

But, alas, you are not Cayde-6, so you don't have any idea what this plan is; you're simply concerned with the fact that he's launching himself over the courtyard railing.

"FREEEEEEEDOOOOOOM!" the exo screamed as he jumped. Guardians yelled and screamed, horrified as he disappeared.

A ship rose over the railing, a Ceres-Galiot, with Cayde-6 doing an air-guitar on top of it. The horrified gasps turned into wild cheers, Hunters whooping and whistling, while their Vanguard continued acting like a rockstar. He did the moonwalk, spun around, and made gun symbols with his hands in the direction of the crowd.

"Au revoir, dear friends!" he called, pulling a handkerchief out of his sleeve and waving it in their direction as the ship slowly drifted it's front away from the Tower courtyard. Commander Zavala stormed out from the Guardian's hall to investigate the commotion, and his eyes seemed to pop out of his head when he caught sight of the Hunter Vanguard.

"CAYDE-6!" he roared, his bellow cutting through the sound of cheering Hunters.

"Sorry, Zavala, but I need to rescue my sanity! I can't trust this mission with anyone else!" Cayde said solemnly, one hand over his heart. "I greive for the City's safety if I do not return successful."

"FLY, LITTLE EXO; BE FREE!" Called one Huntress, who was wearing a bright red fedora and a pair of aviator sunglasses. Cayde saluted her.

"Fly I shall, my friend! Fly, I shall!" he vowed. The Galiot took off, and the exo assumed a "super-hero" pose, standing on one foot with one fist drawn back and the other one pumped forward, jaw set. The Hunters, and even a few Warlocks and Titans, erupted into pandemonium. The Huntress threw her hat into the air victoriously, one Hunter jumped up onto the shoulders of two others, fists in the air. A titan fired his auto rifle into the sky, and his Hunter companion did likewise with their hand cannon.

"NO SHOOTING IN THE TOWER! PUT THAT VOID BOW AWAY! _TEVIS, WERE YOU IN ON THIS_!? HEY! WATCH YOUR MOUTH, WARLOCK!" Zavala tried to gain control of the whooping, cheering Guardians, but to no avail.

"CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYDE!" he screamed to the sky, dropping to his knees. "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"

* * *

 **Yay! Cayde gained his freedom! This is just a short piece I thought of earlier today. I always pictured Cayde and Petra getting along well; they're both kind of stuck with positions of authority; promoted downwards, so to speak. Though, it is said Petra was given her post after a mission went bad; perhaps the one where she lost her eye? It would make sense, in a way, to keep you military genius out of the fighting if they're missing their depth perception.**

 **But we know Brask was killed in battle with Taniks, which leads to questions like; Why was a Vanguard fighting anyway? Did a fallen as big and noticeable as Taniks find a way to get into the Tower unseen? Or is Brask's fate the reason Vanguards are restricted to the Tower? Or had he already challenged someone to the Dare again and won? You know, I've always wondered what the Vanguard Dare actually was. Was it like, a retrieval mission of some sort, or a Sparrow race or something? A targeted kill? If so, he could have been challenging someone when Taniks attacked, or Taniks could have been the target assigned by the over-confident Brask.**

 **Anyway, I'm done thinking aloud now. This has a lot of Cayde in it, so get ready for some pithy jokes. XD**

 **Next time: Petra and Cayde go on an all-out rampage through the Cosmadrome, and Tevis is sure that Cayde is insane.**

 **Cheers!^^**


	2. Cayde is Crazy

All was peaceful on this patrol. The hangar was silent, the group of Dregs, Vandals, and Shanks were simply wandering around the room, pacing, or boredly twirling their Wire Rifles. There was nothing to do here.

A small clang split the air suddenly, making them all jump. A small, rusted metal bolt bounced to a halt at a Dreg's feet after falling through from somewhere from the large hole ripped in the metal roof. He bent to pick it up.

"FOOOOOORRRR NAAAARRRRNIIIAAAAAA!" A heavy weight fell on top of the Dreg, and he was almost immediately killed by the knife that cut through his throat. The exo back flipped off of his first victim, firing a shot from his hand cannon as he did so, landing on his feet as the Vandal behind him fell to the ground, it's head completely blow off by the close-range shot.

"Hello, ladies!" he greeted, bowing deeply at the rest of the gathered Fallen crowd as they stared at him, shell-shocked. Then the Captain let out a screech, and they all snarled in response, readying their weapons and beginning to attack.

The Hunter dodged behind a crate with an elegant(and somewhat purposefully-comical) twirl, throwing a grenade carelessly with one hand as he did so. The explosive detonated in their midst, killing several of them, though many others jumped to the dirt. The three Shanks were not so lucky, all of them going down in bursts of flames, hitting several of the cover-taking Fallen, killing them.

The Captain screeched loudly to the sky, calling more of his kind to arms. Cayde peeked his head out from behind the crate with the exo equivalent of a grin. He put one hand to his ear mockingly.

"Sorry; what was that you said, sonny? You knows I gots not hear'n very well these last few years." he mocked. The Captain hissed at him, and the remaining Fallen got to their feet, readying their weapons once more. Cayde, still grinning, winked at them before pulling his head back around the crate.

"Hey, I think it might be party time!" his voice called. "I hope you guys know how to dance!"

The Captain glanced at another Captain as they came into the room. More Fallen filled their ranks near the doorway, shanks floated over their heads in a metal cloud, and the original Captain hissed with pleasure. This Guardian was dead for sure...perhaps he would be promoted to Baron for this? The Guardian's head peaked out above the crate again, and he was still smiling. The Captain roared at him, and the rest of the Fallen took up his rallying cry menacingly. The Guardian still smiled.

"I really wouldn't stand there if I were you." he stated simply, before pulling back behind his cover just in time to avoid ten different blasts from ten different Wire rifles. The Captain raised a fist to cease fire, standing bolt upright, listening. A dull roar was rumbling through the air, gradually getting louder. It sounded...like an engine.

A woman screamed a battle cry from behind the ranks of Fallen, before many of them were sent flying as she hit the boost on the Sparrow she'd been riding slowly through the compound. They were shocked as an awoken with fushia hair and Reef armor skid to a halt, drifting to face them. From either side of the Sparrow, she lifted an assault rifle, and began to fire on them with both guns, screaming with uncontained elation at the fact that she was fighting for the first time in years.

The Fallen dove for whatever cover they could find, and as more reinforcements entered from another door to the hangar, Cayde rolled out from behind his cover, an auto rifle in his hands.

"Say 'hello'...TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!" He yelled at them in an accent, before spraying them with bullets.

With something between a scream and a laugh, he cut them down.

* * *

 _Meanwhile..._

Tevis was proud of his friend. Not just for escaping, no; he'd taken the Queen's Emissary with him. He had originally wondered how badly Venj would get punished once they found her, but the Queen hadn't seemed upset at all; if anything, she'd been mildly amused by Zavala's accusation.

"Your emissary stole my Hunter Vanguard! And now I've been getting reports of an 'insane awoken and exo couple rampaging through the Cosmodrome'!" The Vanguard Commander had raged over the comm link to the Queen they had established.

"Then by all means, retrieve them." the calm female voice replied, a faint lilt of amusement gracing her tone. She, apparently, wasn't at all as "rage-y" about this as Zavala was. It was all the Nightstalker could do to keep a straight face.

"None of the scouts will comply! Every time I give the order, they go through a tunnel and cut the connection!" He was SO close to loosing control of his barely-contained laughter. He'd never seen Zavala this angry!

"I'm sending my brother along, then, to bring Petra home. No doubt, Variks will have a few choice words for her behavior; I'll leave the berating to him. As for your rouge Vanguard, I think Guardian Larsen would be more than willing to help with his safe return." _Dang! Not Prince Uldren!_ He groaned internally. Word was, that guy was a jerk! He had to find Cayde first! Maybe he could get Shiro-4 on board...

"Very well." Zavala said through grit teeth. Ikora watched on in bemusement as the Queen cut the transmission. "Guardian Larsen."

"Yeeees?" Tevis asked.

"Find him. Bring him here. So I can strangle him."

"Yes, sir." He turned to leave.

"Larsen."

"What?"

"Don't help him. Or encourage him. Or praise him in any way."

"Okay."

* * *

"Ah, _man_. Do we _really_ have to do this?" Shiro-4 asked sadly putting down his binoculars. They sat up on the cliffs. Gunfire and happy screaming could be heard far below. "He looks so happy."

Tevis took the binoculars from the Gunslinger, and watched as Cayde-6 shot a Vandal in the head before falling backwards in a pile of snow to make a snow angel. He sighed unhappily.

"Ah, yes; the Cayde-6, in his natural environment. Majestic, stoic, beautiful and magnificent. A rare sight to behold. T'would be a shame to remove him from his home, a shame and a crime." He brought one fist to his chest solemnly. "But it must be done, brother."

"Hey, where's Petra?" Shiro questioned in realization. An explosion near the Skywatch, accompanied by the sight of a Sparrow zooming away, answered his question. "Ah. There's Petra."

"Shiro, Tevis, Uldren's ship is incoming." Tevis's Ghost informed them. The sound of a ship breaking the atmosphere far overhead confirmed this. The two Hunters summoned their Sparrows, and launched themselves down to where the rouge Vanguard was rolling in the snow.

The Reef ship descended not on them, but where Petra had sped off to. It occurred to Tevis that she must have been using Cayde's Sparrow, and that the Reef prince was as good as dead if he damaged or destroyed the vehicle in the process of retrieving Petra. Both Hunters skid to a halt near Cayde, who lay still in the snow, hands cushioning his head.

They looked down on him from both sides, and he smiled innocently up at them.

"Hello. Wonderful weather we're having." he greeted charmingly.

"Your charm can't save you this time, old friend." Tevis told him solemnly. Shiro nodded.

"You're coming with us, and there's no way to avoid it." Cayde frowned deeply. He heaved a sigh, and got to his feet.

"Whatever, then. Let's go." He relented. He knew that if he tried to run, Tevis could catch him easily; that old Nightstalker knew all his tricks.

"Alright." Tevis said, climbing onto his Sparrow. "Right after we kill the Archon that won't leave the Forgotten Pass alone."

Cayde's face lit up. Meanwhile, Petra was getting the scolding of a lifetime from Uldren. Zavala would probably have smoke pouring out his ears when he heard the Hunters he'd sent for Cayde had aided and abetted with further misconduct.

But, all in all...

Nobody cared.

Well, maybe Cayde did, as he whooped and hollered from the back of Tevis's Sparrow; any day he managed to make the little veins in Zavala's forehead pulse to the theme of Darth Vader, was a day of success in his book.

* * *

 **Okay, wow, I know this is incredibly late, and I know it certainly isn't the quality I wanted it to be, but meh. At first, I was going to release it for RoI, but then I got detracted by something shiny, and I forgot. I'm posting this in celebration of the 50th review of Heartbusters, the sequel to my cult favorite, Fever. Fever's still going strong by the way; I had a massive and random fifty-something veiw spike the other day.**

 **This is separate from the Dysfuntional Fireteam universe, just to clarify. That Hunter was merely a reference to Silverhawk. Yes, I know how Petra got "fired" so to speak. I wrote that Author's Note before I became a Destiny Lore-Head. In my head, this takes place sometime during or after HoW. I'm glad you all were satisfied with Zavala's reaction.**

 **Now, if ya'll excuse me, I have important business to attend to. Mainly, procrastinating.**

 **Cheers!^^**


End file.
